They Who Endure Deck Guide (Call of the Mountain)
In this deck guide, our Glimpse Beyond experts, Precipic and Silverfuse, will be covering how to play They Who Endure! Here’s the deck list:
Deck Code: CECAMAIFBMNB4KZQGEBAEBIEAYBQGBICAQDACAIBEIAQEAIFCAMQA
[See They Who Endure deck details]
Although this archetype has existed in past sets and metas, it has received some new tools with the Call of the Mountain expansion.
This guide will cover the deck’s card choices, mulligans, matchups, and we’ll even include a budget version at the end.
There’s also a companion video below so be sure to check that out as well. Enjoy!
Win Condition and Expected Turn to Win Game
The goal of this deck is to flood out the board early with Cursed Keeper plus Ravenous Butcher and Blighted Caretaker.
Use those tools to pressure the opponent to a low life total and then finish the game off with a giant They Who Endure plus Atrocity or by draining them out with Unspeakable Horror and Doombeast.
You should expect to win the game between turn 5 and turn 9, but I have won as early as turn 4.
Mulligan for Different Matchups and General Mulligan
The general mulligan with this deck should be looking for Cursed Keeper plus an activator such as Ravenous Butcher or Blighted Caretaker.
Practice your mulligans with the Starting Hand Simulator.
In most hands, you should be throwing away everything looking for a Cursed Keeper. The only card that is an exception to this is Stalking Shadows.
In any slower matchup, I will always keep 1 copy of Stalking Shadows just to ensure that my deck is able to function by scouting for high priority cards.
Card Choices and Key Synergies
This deck thrives off of early game aggression offered by Cursed Keeper and Ravenous Butcher. The pair can offer 7 damage on turn 2.
There are several Last Breath cards in the list including Hapless Aristocrat, Warden’s Prey, and Cursed Keeper.
Ravenous Butcher and Blighted Caretaker are high tempo cards that are activators for the Last Breath cards which makes these cards get value while creating a more powerful board for yourself.
Stalking Shadows is a new card from Call of the Mountain which allows the player to look at the top 4 cards which are followers and pick one to draw.
This card also creates an Ephemeral copy of the card that you drew. Doombeast is often a high priority target for Stalking Shadows due to the reach and sustain that it offers.
Other solid picks include Wraithcaller for more pressure on the board, Cursed Keeper to take advantage of the Ephemeral copy to create a 4/3 on the board, or Blighted Caretaker to control the blockers with the Saplings it creates.
Kalista is the only champion in this list. She is a powerhouse that can make this deck explosive. When she levels up, she summons an Ephemeral copy of the highest attack allied follower that has died in this game.
She often pulls one of the stronger blockers to block her which allows you to get more damage in with other creatures and while keeping Kalista alive.
The Ephemeral that she summons dying also gives They Who Endure +1/+1 each time that the Ephemeral dies when Kalista attacks. Overall, Kalista puts the opponent under a lot of pressure even before she levels as well.
Oftentimes, opponents may become hesitant to block when Kalista is on the board pre-leveled in fear of her leveling up. This allows you to get more chip damage against your opponent and take advantage of the early aggression that this deck offers.
ust make sure that you always put Kalista to the far right in combat so that she levels during combat. The same rule applies to Barkbeast.
The finisher of this deck is They Who Endure which gains +1/+1 per each allied unit death. They Who Endure has Overwhelm which allows for the attack to get in plenty of damage.
If the opponent uses removal on They Who Endure, then you can use Atrocity to have your They Who Endure inflict 10+ direct damage to your opponent’s Nexus. Atrocity can also be used as a finisher on other creatures as well.
This is common as the aggressive nature of the deck often gets opponents down to 5 or less health before They Who Endure is needed.
Good Matchups (and How to Win Them Consistently)
The best matchups for They Who Endure are against any aggressive decks. The ability to play a Cursed Keeper and a Ravenous Butcher or a Blighted Caretaker shuts down almost every aggressive strategy in the game.
The fact that you out trade your aggressive opponent with your high tempo stats keeps them from beating you down.
Add onto the fact that you have cards such as Doombeast to gain back life and They Who Endure which ends the game the turn you play it. Generally, if you are against an aggressive opponent you are very favored with They Who Endure.
Bad Matchups (and How to Give Yourself a Better Chance at Winning)
The hardest matchup for this deck is against any midrange deck with a lot of healing or a control deck with a lot of mass removal spells like Withering Wail or Avalanche.
In this matchup, you need to get them in range of They Who Endure plus Atrocity by playing super aggressively and working to get your They Who Endure huge.
Generally, this means that you want your They Who Endure to be as big as your opponent’s Nexus health which allows the Atrocity to one shot your opponent’s Nexus.
Against aggressive decks, you don’t need to have a huge They Who Endure because you can beat them down with a smaller one. On turn 7, you will most likely be playing They Who Endure to finish off your opponent through an attack.
Hush is also a notable card that counters They Who Endure. Your goal against Hush is to just continuously force out every Hush using cloned endures off of Stalking Shadows and then once they’ve run out of Hushes they won’t have a way to deal with your They Who Endure, and they will die.
You will also be out tempoing them as they take 3 mana to Hush each They Who Endure that you play. The deck is also aggressive enough that it can often win without casting Endure against most strategies in the game.
Another notable card to be aware of is Equinox from Invoke decks. If they have a Spacey Sketcher they have about a 50% chance to get Equinox off it, which could silence your followers in Cursed Keeper and They Who Endure if they do then you just have to play into it most of the time early with cursed keeper so you can land your Endures later.
Tech Choices
Vengeance
This is really good if there are giant units that completely shut down your game plan like Sejuani or Nautilus
Sejuani
Sejuani is very good at beating up on any midrange deck, she was a great choice when Ashe Noxus was popular and it also does a lot of work against Twisted Fate decks
Elise
If people are playing incredibly greedy decks that have no way to block a 2/3 Fearsome and a spider then Elise is absurd. If people actually play for the board for the first 2 turns it’s fine, not optimal.
Vile Feast
If you are against almost all aggressive decks you can put in additional Vile Feasts to help out your aggro matchups.
Avarosan Sentry
The card draw from Avarosan Sentry makes this a great tool against control decks
Neverglade Collector
If you are against decks without ways to remove this card consistently this card is absolutely absurd, if it lives it will win you the game by itself.
Icevale Archer
This is another good tool against decks with really big units, the ability to stop a full attack from something like a Nautilus or a Sejuani is huge.
Budget Version of They Who Endure
If you’re a new player or still expanding your card collection, here’s a budget version of this deck!
Deck Code: CECAIAIFBMNDANICAICQIBQDAMCQEBAGAEAQCIQBAUAQKEAZFMYTQAA
[See They Who Endure (budget version) deck details]
The key swaps here are trimming Kalista for Stygian Onlooker or Frenzied Skitterer and add Elise to synergize with Frenzied Skitterer
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, feel free to ask Silverfuse during her streams (usually daily from 2-6PM CST).
Catch Silverfuse live at www.twitch.tv/silverfuse
